A letter from the poet to a friend, newly displayed at his home, is beautiful
and illuminating

“'If I should die,’ said I to myself, 'I have left no immortal work behind me – nothing to make my friends proud of my memory,’” wrote John Keats, tortured by the thought that he would succumb to tuberculosis before he had made a name for himself. “But I have lov’d the principle of beauty in all things,” he went on, “and if I had had time I would have made myself remember’d”.

A year after the poet wrote this letter to his beloved Fanny Brawne, he died at the age of 25, believing he had left nothing of literary worth. We, of course, know that he was wrong. Keats has not only left us a wealth of poetry but letters, too, which allow us to share his delight in nature, beauty, sensations, the power of imaginative flight and his love of the written word.

The fragile originals of such letters are rarely seen in public, but one has been put on display at Keats’s house in Hampstead. At first glance, the letter – one of 17 owned by the City of London Corporation, which manages the house – does not seem particularly exciting. Unlike many of his letters, which set out his philosophic vision, extol his literary heroes and overflow with passion, this one is a simple note of just a few lines. It is addressed to Horace Smith, a stockbroker and poet, whose influence on Keats’s life was slight. But on closer inspection the letter is illuminating.

Keats writes to seek his friend’s “indulgence” as he calls off a meeting. His brothers are expecting him in Devonshire, he explains, and he has “some days [sic] work before I can go thither”. The letter was written in 1818 when Keats was finishing his epic poem Endymion – it shows that the then 22-year-old Keats, who had relinquished his medical training to pursue a career as a poet, was devoted to his new calling. Always a loyal friend who treasured the company of others, Keats puts his craft first.

He also praises Smith on a poem the latter had sent. “I am being greatly amused by your Poem – it has a full leven of Wit and imaginative fun,” he writes. Keats was eager to establish himself on the literary scene and met a circle of writers in Hampstead (from where he wrote the letter) that included Leigh Hunt and Wordsworth. Keats enjoyed this exchange of poems and ideas, and is clearly pleased that Smith has called upon his own opinion – later on, Keats would feel the need to assert his independence and form a voice of his own, but here we see an optimistic young poet taking root in literary society. Gazing upon the well-preserved letter, the beautiful looped handwriting and its ink turned gold with age, is an experience in itself; the closest we can get to the human touch of a genius whose life was fleeting yet brilliant.